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WASHINGTON – The nation’s top defense leaders said Monday that U.S.-led forces were making steady progress in their efforts in a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan but faced stiffer resistance than expected and the operation would take longer than hoped.

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon the efforts against the Taliban were “messy” and “incredibly wasteful,” as was war in general. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth the cost.”

Mullen said the battle and the broader war can be won with the proper resources and …

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Associated Press photo

Afghan security men surround a damaged civilian vehicle as a U.S. military armored vehicle is parked near the site of a suicide attack on a small group of tribal elders and government workers near Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. (Full-size photo)

Police Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi said a militant attacked tribal elders and government workers who were meeting with a few hundred Afghan refugees to discuss the land distribution. Among those killed was Mohammad Zaman Ghamsharik, better known as Haji Zaman, one of the two principal Afghan warlords who went after bin Laden after the Taliban fled Kabul in 2001.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The nation’s top defense leaders said Monday that U.S.-led forces were making steady progress in their efforts in a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan but faced stiffer resistance than expected and the operation would take longer than hoped.

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon the efforts against the Taliban were “messy” and “incredibly wasteful,” as was war in general. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth the cost.”

Mullen said the battle and the broader war can be won with the proper resources and strategy.

“As you’ve all been seeing, we’re making steady, if perhaps a bit slower than anticipated, progress,” Mullen said.

Mullen also expressed regret for a NATO airstrike that killed at least 21 Afghan civilians. It was the third coalition strike this month to kill noncombatants and drew a sharp rebuke from Afghanistan’s government about endangering civilians.

At the same briefing, Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, saying McChrystal keenly understands the need to do the utmost to avoid civilian casualties and has made that a top priority.

“I have confidence in his judgment,” Gates said.

For 10 days, U.S. and Afghan troops have been fighting holdout Taliban forces in an effort to secure the southern town of Marjah in Helmand province.

On a related subject, Gates said recent arrests of high-level Taliban fighters by Pakistan marks “real progress” by the Islamabad government and “another positive indication” of its commitment to stabilizing its border with Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, Pakistani authorities arrested the No. 2 Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi. Also arrested were a pair of Taliban “shadow governors” from two Afghan provinces and several other militant suspects linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Gates told reporters that “what we are seeing is the importance of operations on both sides of the border.”